This patent application is co-pending with my eight other patent applications having Ser. Nos. 798,059; 798,060; 798,061 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,323); 798,062 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,094); 798,063; 798,064 and 798,065 and having the same filing date of May 18, 1977, relating to a high pressure air turbine-gear train assembly describing and claiming various aspects thereof.
This invention relates to a gear train system and more particularly to a low weight, high strength, torsionally and laterally stiff epicyclic gear planet carrier assembly.
When power is transmitted between two stages of any parallel or branched gear system; including an epicyclic, star or parallel arrangement; of more than one stage, there is a problem as to keeping the axes of all gears parallel under heavy torque loads. Furthermore, there is a need for having a structure of minimum weight in order to minimize the dynamic loading of the system. It is thus desirable in such a gear train system to keep the weight of the system to be as low as possible and particularly to have a planet carrier assembly which has low weight and has high strength and is torsionally and laterally stiff.